cross-posted from: https://lemmy.abnormalbeings.space/post/952648
TEXT VERSION: https://thelibre.news/trump-cuts-funding-to-foss-projects/
If you use these services, please donate once or regularly if you’re able. They are free as in puppy, not beer - dev work costs money. I would guess many people using Tor/privacy tools are tech savvy enough to have financial comfort due to a good career. If you do it you’re doing an everyday act of rebellion for the sake of progress!!!
Puppy?
“free” when you find it on the side of the road, but expensive to actually maintain without having it die on you.
The download is free, but pay for it or it’s going to die.
I didn’t know that the government was funding these things to begin with, but I don’t know many things.
I also didn’t know this, but really we should all be putting money behind FOSS (myself included). We don’t need billionaires.
Because foss projects like tor are regularly used by the agencies. It’s little money for a lot of work they don’t need to do.
Sounds like it may be time for some creative licensing
So I guess funds were cut, but then the courts ruled the president doesn’t have authority to do this himself since the funds were allocated by congress, and so as of now they have been restored, although congress needs to approve them every year and there’s concern they might not do so for next year.
Until Trump ignores court orders and cuts funding anyway.
Supreme Court will probably rule that while congress has the power of the purse, the president has the power of canceling the credit cards in the wallet, because fuck you that’s why
Well, this is what the relevant part of the video says:
USAGM disbursed $7.5M to these entities, in “what seemed to be an effort to delay the hearing or woo the judge”. Regardless, the latter has sided against USAGM, and just a few days ago, the agency has decided to back off and release the funds for the 2025 fiscal year.
Why was the US funding FOSS projects? That strikes me as weird, inappropriate and suspicious.
Not that unusual. e.g. TOR started as a governement project. it was invented in the U.S. Naval Research Lab.
internet too
gps too
If it makes you feel better (or worse), thr NSA has contributed a great deal of work to the Linux kernel. In fact, they created SELinux, which you may be using at this very moment.
If US uses FOSS software in its operations (it does, everyone does) it has a vested interest in keeping these projects alive.
Also many of the sponsored projects help people circumvent authoritarian government overreach, which is something that until recently has been considered “good” for the US. The more freely information can flow the harder it is for authoritarian regimes to exert control.
Do they use for browser for something?
Use it? The US invented it. The US has historically funded it as part of their human rights initiatives. Like I said:
Also many of the sponsored projects help people circumvent authoritarian government overreach, which is something that until recently has been considered “good” for the US. The more freely information can flow the harder it is for authoritarian regimes to exert control.
Given the nature of the Tor network, it’s likely any “official” use within the US government would probably involve things like communicating with people working undercover / informants, etc., and not be something broadly discussed.
Oh cool, that’s a good idea for them to do.
FOSS is already stale for a long time by large corporations (Google, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, X, etc), all of these with own developments of FOSS, these are not affected by this cuts for OpenSource proyects, but small startups, individual devs and small companies and oprganisations. It’s not against FOSS, it’s about control and clear against freedom.
Fuck the US https://interoperable-europe.ec.europa.eu/eu-oss-catalogue
Why was the US funding FOSS projects? That strikes me as weird, inappropriate and suspicious.
A mixture of the elements within the US that actually believed the stuff about personal rights and democracy still existing behind the more sinister realities, as well as it being in the same pot of funded projects like Radio Free Asia, Radio Liberty and the likes, which always were a mix of just outright propaganda organs, but also providing the scaffolding of free media access for some regions in the past.
So, it’s complicated, ultimately rooted in a mix of the cynical US wanting to support dissidents in other countries, and the idealist US also having people actually believing in personal freedom and privacy, even within their government/state structures.
Also, just in general, a lot of FOSS projects get funding from governments, US or otherwise. If I remember correctly ReactOS got a lot of funding from Russia, for example, because they saw a potential way to get away from Microsoft in it.
From what I gather, there was no open influence wielded over those projects, I at least don’t remember the OTF forcing a backdoor onto Tor Browser for the CIA or something like that - thankfully the open source structure makes that easier to control - but the weakness becomes apparent now, of course, because funds could now be withdrawn, as the government turned fascist.
Solid answer! Guess I’m a cow patty for even asking, but you came to the rescue.
It’s not surrounded by a ton of corporate bs. I know the us govt has their own openstreetmap setups (like this basic unclassified one) and wiki sites (intellipedia) because it’s a proven framework to set up and add your own information.
Holy shit, we have our own SCP archives? That’s sick
That would be good for government to cut funding. Users should give away their own cash to support the projects.
Funders of any project can influence decisions, but users giving from their own personal money can keep open source software free from any influences.
One of the expressed reasons for cutting funding to PBS and NPR (via the Corp. for Public Broadcasting) is because they can’t influence what is being said by those entities.
One cannot influence what no longer exists. *tapsforehead
PBS and NPR do sell a partisian message, they are not for anybody and everybody to speak. NPR and PBS only allow presentations from those who have the correct opinions and views.
Source?
But sadly in reality it means these projects will most likely go underfunded
Lets encrypt could run a patreon and stay funded. Plenty of people with money depend on them.
I really appreciate that there’s a text version for those of us who can’t or won’t use videos! Thank you so much for sharing it, too. 💙
EFF should GTFOutta US and set up shop in a safer region.
We need them here now more then ever unfortunately. But yeah, stay safe and spread out for sure.
They’re the only thing I wear tee shirts for, have stickers all over my gear, and talk about way too often. Underappreciated champions of the people and nobody outside of these kinds of circles knows who the hell they are.
I was going to suggest Canada or Greenland…
FLOSS projects can only be sustainable if their are enough shared interests able to support it through contributions of all kinds. Fortunately the code is free so that constellation of support can change over time. It’s a shame this particular line of government funding is coming to an end but others can help.
Urgh this is so backwards.
Governments need to fund more FOSS not less!
Hopefully the EU can increase its support to compensate.
Foss is free, and this guy is all about making the American people pay more money to his rich buddies
He’s doing a suck job of it. The things he’s gutting are pennies towards his dark-souled oligarch masters. Cutting small government projects like the NEA, PBS or like FOSS grants is only used as an appeal to fiscal responsibility conservatives that aren’t willing to cut into old-people benefits like Social Security and military sacred cows. Not because gutting tiny projects does anything useful, rather it gives the vibe that representatives are doing something.
This is an appeal to the imbicile MAGA though the tech bros might have specific FOSS projects that compete with their own commercial offerings. Not enough to cut all FOSS grants, though.
In essence he’s trying to bankrupt the whole country so he and his circle can buy it all up. He’s trying to do the same thing that was done in Russia when the ussr collapsed.
ikr, i can’t believe this administration did something backwards this time.
I thought the EU was reducing funding to FOSS projects and investing more into AI. I could’ve sworn I read that somewhere last year.
Edit: https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/17/foss_funding_vanishes_from_eus/
I think it was this event that I read.
Or China! Open source is basically digital communism so maybe they’ll step in and support it like they did with the World Health Organization
Yeah… Because China is big into encryption
They are in order to get away from American products
While it sucks that FOSS projects will have their funding sapped, let’s remember why the open source model is used in the first place: it can’t be bought. If it goes down, someone will just fork the last known repository and have it up and running again.
Yep. All the funding they’ve already put into it will stay put. You can’t uncode FOSS.
Imagine trying to explain FOSS to this fucking administration.
If it’s free, then why are we paying for it?
I see what you did there… but freedom costs $1.05.
Freedom isn’t free as in beer?
I can hear ypu americanness from behind the screen darling.
Free means freedom not “no payments” it takes huge money to develop and maintain software and infrastructures like these. So they need funding to survive.
Sarcasm…
You sound like a smug a-hole.
Sorry, I was writing that in Trump’s voice. I am an American who loves and contributes to open-source :)
Plenty of people who (I assume) are smarter than Trump don’t understand that FOSS refers to freedom, not price. It’s not a very good term and I don’t like how widely used it is now.
we shouldn’t need the government also we have made it fairly far
Oh course not. They stop people spying on you.
Oh No ! Leopards Ate My Face.
Better off in the long run.
Uhh… these projects are the backbone of the free and modern web. How is less funding a good thing?
Not the one you answered to, but I think I can understand the idea of US funding having been a toxic source of dependency, and it being better in the long run to get money elsewhere. That “elsewhere” is a good question, though.
Just me, personally, my dream would be an international fund, carried by the UN or maybe an independent NGO, that can get funding from both private and public funds, that prioritises free internet access the way the WHO prioritises health. But I think that’s still far off.
US funding having been a toxic source of dependency, and it being better in the long run to get money elsewhere.
Yup, pretty much my intent, that and the insecurity it engenders, rather surprised by the reaction.
long run
This is the crux of the problem when losing funding like this
the reaction makes sense; these organizations are modeled after for-profit corporations since that’s where most of its leaders come from and oriented towards simpler modes of funding like the american gov’t; this is effectively a disaster for this sort of posture and it’s hard from them to imagine any other form.
Isn’t the OTF already an NGO that can receive funding from different sources?
Kind of, I wouldn’t really call them an international organisation in the way I would be imagining, see how easy it was to cut their funding when national interests turned openly fascist. Their affiliation with the US government above more independent, international organisations meant, that they would support privacy and a free and open internet, as long as it helps dissidents in other, non-aligned countries, but quick to cut it, if it reaches their own doorsteps.
Not sure if this is meant here, but shockingly many people believe that “funding” something equals to “controlling” it.
many people believe that “funding” something equals to “controlling” it.
Pretty much the definition of soft power, which an awful lot of politicians believe in.
For a good reason
@thingsiplay It does, if it turns into dependence. Look at Mozilla.
Mozilla was not controlled by Google.
Not a good thing, just an inevitable one, as they conflict with the interests of the US (oligarchs and techbros).
This is not an example of leopards eating someone’s face. Unless those projects threw their support behind Trump’s admin, and I have no reason to believe they did, this is simply falling victim to fascist idiots.
Valid point.
@MalReynolds Are you saying F-Droid, TOR, Tails or Let’s Encrypt supported Trump? I’d like to read more about that.
How could you read it that way ? I’m saying eventually they were going to conflict with the interests of the US (oligarchs and techbros) and lose funding. Shocker, it happened under cheeto.
@MalReynolds Leopards eating faces implies that they voted for the Leopards. But ok, issue clarified, all good.
Yeah, I have a broader view of the phrase, which includes complacency (not actively working at alternatives) as well as just voting, seems most agree with you.
Having a broader view of a phrase just means you didn’t understand the phrase. It’s okay to admit that.
